The present invention relates to an air-conditioner for a vehicle and a method therefor, and more particularly, to an air conditioner control apparatus including a telecommunication cabling system to simplify wiring and reduce the total weight of a vehicle.
As vehicles have become more popular, people""s mind-set has changed to recognize vehicles not as luxury products, but as a necessity of life. As people spend more time in cars, there has been a greater demand for a notion that cars should play a role as an important space of life.
Particularly, an air conditioner, which cools the inside of a vehicle in summer, is one of key required elements to be taken into account when a vehicle is purchased. Since the air conditioner is essential to improving comfort and convenience in using a vehicle, many technologies have been developed to improve the functions of the air conditioner. As is well known, an air conditioner relieves heat generated by an engine of a vehicle, by riders and external solar radiation so that the riders or passengers can feel more comfortable with less fatigue and maintain pleasantness in driving the vehicle.
In general, an air conditioner has a function of cooling a vehicle by utilizing a 4-step cooling cycle. The air conditioner performs cooling operations by controlling major parts such as condenser, compressor, evaporator, liquid tank and expansion valve.
When a driver manipulates remotely-controlled switches on a panel, the aforementioned parts of the air conditioner can be controlled or driven according to their relevant operational signals. The structure of the air conditioner controlling apparatus in general is illustrated in the schematic diagrams shown in FIGS. 1 through 3.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional air conditioner of a vehicle is constructed with a remotely-controlled switch 10, a drive module 30 and a hard wire 20 that transmits signals of the switch 10 to the drive module 30.
When a driver is to turn on the air conditioner, he or she manipulates the switch 10 on a panel, switching on the air conditioner and selecting manual operational steps 1, 2 or 3 or automatic operational phase. When an air conditioner switch 11 of the switch 10 is turned on, battery power (BATT+) is applied to an air conditioner relay 31 as shown in FIG. 2. When the air conditioner relay is turned on, the battery power (BATT+) is applied to an air conditioner drive unit 41, having an evaporator fan motor, a condenser fan motor, a compressor fan motor and the like.
At the same time, other switches are also driven by operation of the relevant relays. As shown in FIG. 3, the first, second and third operational step switches 12, 13, 14, an auto temperature control switch 15 and a temperature sensor 16 are directly connected to relevant relays and controllers (not shown) through wires 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 of the hard wire 20 to be turned on or off according to the selected status of switches. Relevant units of the drive unit 40 are driven according to the on/off status of the relays and controllers, so that the air conditioner performs its function.
However, there are disadvantages in the prior art in that the hard wire connects the switch 10 of the driver""s manipulating panel through the drive unit 40, requiring as many individual wires of the hard wire and as many relays and controllers as the number of switches, complicating the wiring layout of the total hard wire 20 and increasing the manufacturing cost. There is at least another problem in the prior art in that a great number of wiring connections and relevant relays increase the total weight of the vehicle and its fuel consumption.
The present invention provides a vehicle air conditioner control apparatus including input means for a driver to manipulate and drive an air conditioner, remote control means for transforming a manipulated signal of the input means to a transmission signal and then sending the signal through a telecommunication cable, drive control means for generating and outputting a relevant signal to drive the air conditioner according to the transmission signal received from the remote control means through the telecommunication cable, and drive means for performing a function to cool off the vehicle according to the drive signal output from the drive control means.
In a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for driving the vehicle air conditioner control apparatus. In a preferred embodiment, the method comprises driving an evaporator fan at a predetermined speed according to a degree of the internal temperature of the vehicle if an automatic temperature control signal is selected and remotely sent by a driver, driving a condenser fan and a compressor according to the status of a pressure switch of the compressor, driving an evaporator fan at a corresponding speed if a signal relating to one of manual operational levels 1, 2, 3 is selected and sent remotely, and driving the condenser fan and the compressor according to the status of internal temperature and compressor pressure switch if the remotely sent air conditioner driving signal is received after the evaporator fan is driven.